Star Fox: The Company of Strays
by SpyketheWolf
Summary: This story chronicles some of the later exploits of 'The Company of Strays'; A resistance group hell bent on taking back their home planet of Titania from the Cornerian Goverment. Warning: contains cussing, violence, blood and illogical happenings.
1. Prologue

Star Fox: The Company of Strays

Prologue

"_Honor, Definition – Honesty, Fairness, or Integrity in one's beliefs and actions. None of these Cornerians have it_" – Arson's Musings.

* * *

Six years have passed since the Anglar Wars and the Lylat system has been quite peaceful, with the exception of a few pirates here and there. Star Fox disbanded after the Anglar Wars, Fox and Krystal have settled down together to lead a quiet life in the country-side near Corneria's capitol city, they now have a 4 year old son named Marcus. Slippy and Amanda got married on Aquas and now have a son who is only 3 years of age, although Slippy goes to Corneria to visit the R&D department building every now and then. Peppy is now the General of Corneria and his daughter Lucy is a scientist for the Cornerian government. As for Falco, he asked Katt to marry him and she accepted....although they can't agree on a date to have the wedding. Falco is now a Lieutenant of the Cornerian army. As for Star Wolf, they pretty much just fill in the role of Star Fox now.

As for the planets themselves, Corneria issued a planetary alliance treaty to every planet; the treaty was accepted unanimously among the planets, excluding Titania. Titania itself was excluded from this treaty for the fact that it is believed to be uninhabited except for a handful of practically abandoned Venomian outposts. Because of this, General Peppy has ordered the Cornerian army to set up outposts on the desert planet to extract its raw materials and has also asked a group of scientists to go with them and possibly learn more about Titania's history.

But, shortly after about ten outposts were set up, something, or someone, ransacked or pillaged them. Corneria did not think anything of it. But just to be sure, Peppy sent a handful of scouts to investigate and sure enough, none of them came back. Peppy began to worry so he sent the army back there to set up one massively fortified outpost. The outpost had many more cameras in it to videotape what might happen. The video footage they got was not pretty but they did get a warning from who they now know as The Company of Strays, a warning was painted on a metal wall with blood, reading: "Leave now or die, make your decision NOW! Before WE MAKE IT FOR YOU!!!!"

Of course, when Corneria stopped, the attacks stopped, so Peppy thought about it and sent the Cornerian army back to Titania and told them to be very cautious. Of course, now if a Cornerian supply ship goes near Titania it gets shot down. But other than that, there have been no further attacks on the outpost…for now at least.

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**Artists Comments: ummmmm, ok...so this is my first fanfic....EVER. I usually dont write unless it's for school but my friends wont shut up. so honestly i dont care if people hate this, but please, if you hate this dont insult me....or whatever it's called...dont flame me? im new here so, i would love to make new friends. not new enemies...i have too many at school. Also StarFox and related stuff belongs to Nintendo, not me. but The Company of Strays and the OC's belong to me. you can find their profiles on me DeviantArt page.**


	2. Chapter 1

**Author's Notes: I forgot to put a song in here that I believe suits the situation.**

**Song of the Day: Damage Inc. by Metallica**

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Star Fox: The Company of Strays

Chapter 1

"Does anyone smell barbeque?" – Bloodthirsty Kane's Musings

* * *

Time: 12:59 P.M.

Location: Cornerian Space Port – Downtown, Cornerian Capital

With lunch's end, the boarding and exiting of flights increased in pace dramatically. There was surprisingly little noise aside from the constant murmur of the passengers. Suddenly the beautiful silence was shattered by the loud, repetitive and annoying beeping sound of the metal detector. A security guard quickly ran over to the controls and shut the noise off. The guard looked up at the one who was standing in the metal detection gate, what he saw shocked him. There, standing before him, was a 6' 8" tall wolf, possessing a rather unusual fur color, it was Arsenic. The wolf wore what looked to be really heavy armored military boots and a pair of heavy duty desert camo pants, but no shirt. The guard slowly lifted his head and stared at the wolf's eyes. His eyes were also an odd color, they were Orange-Red. Even a moron could quickly tell that the eyes were synthetic, but what he didn't fully realize was that they were scanning him for something.

"Take a picture, it'll last longer." The wolf stated in a very deep, gruff voice.

"S – s - sorry about that sir..." The guard stuttered quickly, "The computer scans here are showing quite a bit of metal on you. Would you kindly remove any metallic objects you have on and place them in the bucket over there?" The guard said while pointing over to a bucket behind the very tall wolf.

The wolf took a quick glance behind himself at the bucket and then looked back over towards the guard and growled.

"I have a pacemaker."

The guard looked away feeling somewhat stupid; he then looked back to the wolf. "S-s-sorry sir, m-m-may I see your passport?"

The wolf let out an irritated sigh and stuck his hand into his pocket. He pulled out what looked to be a very dirty, old, ruined passport. He tossed it in front of the security guard, crossed his arms and began tapping his boot on the floor impatiently.

The guard carefully opened the passport, making sure not to rip it. He looked at the inside of the passport and read the wolf's ID. The first thing the guard noticed about the ID was that there was no picture of the wolf, only his name, age and birthplace. "Your name is Arson?" the guard asked in a very nervous tone of voice.

The wolf only nodded in response and then let out a metallic sounding yawn.

'_Kind of an odd name if you ask me.'_ The guard thought to himself. He then proceeded to flip through the many pages of the passport only to find they were all blank except one. His eyes grew wide with fear. The page was filled with stamps and doodles from Titania. "Sir, would you mind telling me what kind of business you have had on Titania?" his voice becoming a bit more serious.

Arson looked straight into the guards' eyes and replied "The classified kind."

The guard tried his best to not blink or look away as he and Arson began to have some kind of staring contest. But if the guard wasn't so distracted with Arson he probably would have noticed the cloaked figure on the security cameras coming off of the shuttle carrying some kind of device and then heading down into the furnace room.

"I believe you have work to get back to." Arson said in his usual deep, gruff voice. And with that the guard gave Arson his passport back "Enjoy your stay on Corneria sir." Arson nodded, stuffing the passport back into his pocket before walking towards the building's exit.

As Arson made his way to the doors he got some odd looks from the other guards, the elderly, the children and even some females he found somewhat attractive._'Fucking Cornerians.'_ He thought to himself. Just as Arson got to the doors the cloaked figure limped over to him. "We've set the charges mate." The cloaked figure said in a really thick Australian accent. "I've also sent the location of the R&D building to your HUD but I'll leave the weaponry up to you." The figure assured Arson. "You do your job well Kane." And with that Kane vanished into thin air.

Arson began to calmly walk out of the space port following his NAV data. He then began to count to himself. _'One-one thousand, Two-one thousand, Three-one thousand…'_

_

* * *

_

Time: 1:02 P.M.

Location: A random restaurant - a block down from the space port – Cornerian Capital

It had been a beautiful and fun day for Fox, Krystal and their 4-year old son Marcus. They had taken him to see what Downtown Corneria looked like; they visited General Peppy Hare, and were now having lunch at some restaurant with their good friends Falco Lombardi and Katt Monroe.

Everyone had been busy eating when Krystal shot her head up and thought she heard someone's thoughts, they were counting down. Fox looked at her and was about to ask her what's wrong when out of nowhere there was a slight vibration which caused everyone in the restaurant to stop what they were doing.

Suddenly there was an ear shattering explosion causing everyone to cover their ears and take cover. The explosion sent a massive tremor through the ground causing every window to shatter, tiles from the floor began cracking apart and even the road outside was beginning to crack, causing massive damage to traffic, innocent bystanders and nearby buildings.

Cornerians began to scream wildly and ran away in panic. Fox quickly picked up a fearfully crying Marcus and handed him to Krystal. "Fox! Where are you going?" Krystal cried out. "To check out what happened!" Fox replied and then he was out the now destroyed door with Krystal, Marcus, Katt and Falco following closely behind him.

When they got outside a Landmaster began to drive up in front of them but stopped to let people cross. As it was about to start moving again something fell from the sky and landed on the Landmaster, partially crushing it upon impact. Everyone covered their eyes and then looked up and saw a very tall wolf standing on the now inoperable Landmaster.

Arson looked down at them, brushed himself off and then dropped down from the wreckage. As he walked towards them, Fox pulled out his blaster and aimed it at Arson's face. Arson stopped and looked down at the very frightened Marcus. He knelt down in front of Marcus, not even paying attention to Fox as he was shouting at him to get away. "What's your name little guy?" Arson asked in a more caring, but still gruff voice.

"M-m-marcus…" he said in a frightened tone of voice.

"My name is Arson; I'm not here to hurt _you_. I just wanted to ask you something. Would you mind telling me where the tallest building is?" He asked.

"What kind of question is that?" Katt asked in a very rude tone of voice.

"Fine! If you want to be rude about it then don't answer my very simple question!" Arson shouted back at Katt. And with that Arson got up, crouched down a bit and jumped upwards, landing with a loud 'thud' on the roof of a skyscraper a block away.

Fox and everyone looked at each other, then they looked down the street to their left and saw the space port on fire. As Fox and Co. approached the burning space port, Krystal could hear the screams of people still trapped in the building being burnt alive. Suddenly a Cornerian firefighter began running out of the building with a few other firefighters following him "Everyone move back! There's another bomb!" he shouted.

But before he and his buddies could get far enough away there was another thunderous explosion from within the building. It began a chain reaction causing nearby fuel tanks to explode, causing more damage to the building. A number of the firefighters were engulfed by another massive fireball while the others were crushed as the building collapsed on them. Everyone was speechless at what they had just witnessed.

* * *

Time: 1:18 P.M.

Location: Atop a Building – Cornerian Capital

Arson began to walk over to the eastern side of the roof. Once he reached the edge he began scanning the buildings below him for the R&D building but he was interrupted by a message from Kane.

"Yeah what is it now Kane?" Arson asked becoming slightly annoyed.

"That doesn't sound very welcoming." Kane said but his Australian accent replaced with a stereotypical Texan accent.

"We're getting some readings from within the R&D building that I think you are just going to love!" Kane said sounding a bit excited.

"And what might that be you ask? Well apparently we have reports that a certain Toad is in the building." Kane said but with no Texan accent or Australian accent, instead it sounded rather raspy, almost as if he were choking on something.

With this news a very dark and cruel smile appeared across Arson's muzzle. He cut the link and knelt down at the edge of the roof. Suddenly there was a high pitched beeping noise, and Arson's smile slowly faded away. He blinked once, his fur vanished revealing a lot of metal covering every inch of his body except his back. Then a chunk of his left bicep popped up, grew small legs and crawled down his arm and into his hand. The small legs folded back into the metal chunk which now looked like a canister. Arson lifted the canister up and pushed a few buttons on it, the canister then began to transform into what looked to be a compact missile launcher, a handle with a trigger on it appeared near the front of the weapon. Arson lifted the weapon with ease as he plopped the butt of it on his right shoulder. The handle with the trigger moved back a bit to make room for another handle which extended to allow for better handling. A small scope appeared out of the top of the missile launcher.

Arson leaned his head against the launcher and looked into the scope. His eye making a 'click' sound as it connected with the scope. He uploaded his NAV data into the missile launcher and with a high pitched beep confirming it had locked onto its target. Arson grinned.

"I'M HAVING ROASTED, TOAD TONIGHT MOTHER FUCKER'S!" He yelled loudly as he squeezed the trigger.

Arson lurched backwards a bit as a surprisingly large missile was fired from the launcher. The missile flew around in the air performing a number of aerial maneuvers almost as if it was alive. As it neared its target, it flew upwards before it came crashing down into the R&D building.

* * *

Time: 1:26 P.M.

Location: R&D Department building – Cornerian Capital

Slippy was visiting his father Beltino yet again but this time he had brought his wife Amanda and their 3-year old son along with him. But just as they were walking towards the entrance Slippy heard the whine of a missile. He looked up and sure enough there was a large missile coming towards the building. There was no time to run away so he stopped, picked up his son, took a hold of his wife, and embraced them both.

The missile crashed through the roof of the building and lodged itself in the tiled floor right next to Beltino. Just before it detonated a fax machine voice came from it. "Have a nice day." The missile said in a synthetic feminine voice. The missile detonated, sending out a massive shockwave alongside the explosion, causing every building within a two block radius to completely disintegrate. When the shockwave and explosion were gone, all that remained was a beautiful mushroom cloud.

* * *

Time: 1:27 P.M.

Location: Atop the skyscraper – Cornerian Capital

The missile launcher quickly returned to Arson's bicep. Once it was locked in place Arson blinked and his Arsenic fur re-appeared. He stood back up '_mission accomplished'_he thought. Suddenly the door leading to the roof he was on was smashed open and a squad of Cornerian soldiers came pouring out, aiming their blasters and rifles at Arson.

"Get on the ground!" One of them shouted.

"As you wish…" Arson said in a deeper voice than usual. He took a single step back and went right off the roof.

As the troops ran towards the edge to see if he hit ground, they were out of luck. Instead, a military grade dropship flew upwards, with Arson hanging onto its side. A doorway opened on the side and Arson climbed through it. Just before the dropship flew off, it swivelled around and fired a rocket at the building causing the very tall structure to go up in flames before it came crumbling down to the streets below.

Arson sat down inside the dropship and let out a heavy sigh of relief. He closed his eyes and pictured a list of results adding up to a score:

STARTING TIME: 12:59 P.M.

FINISHING TIME: 1:30 P.M.

KILL COUNT: 13, 394.5 "INNOCENTS"

SCORE: 100,000 POINTS….NEW HIGH SCORE!

The dropship flew into space, gave a violent lurch, vanishing as quickly as it had come.

* * *

**Author's Comments: Finally! i cant believe how long this took me to finish. anyways Starfox characters, planets, ect... dont belong to me. they belong to Nintendo. but Arson and Kane belong to me. Also if you want to see my OC's Profiles go to my DeviantArt page. also before anyone asks, yes i despise Slippy like there's no tomorrow.**


	3. Chapter 2

**Author's Notes: Sorry for being late with updating this story. but I had massive amounts of homework and writers block. **

**Also, again Star Fox is not mine it's Nintendo's, but The C.O.S. is mine and so are the characters in the C.O.S..**

**Also, I feel like putting names of songs at the beginning of chapters because thats the song that helped me write the chapter or I just think the song suits it in some way.**

**Song of the Day: Halo by Machine Head**

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Star Fox: The Company of Strays

Chapter 2

"Bloodbath, Definition – A ruthless slaughter of a great number of people. These Cornerians brought this upon themselves." – Spyke's Musings

* * *

Time: 7:00 A.M.

Location: The McCloud Residence – Cornerian Countryside

Five days have passed since the deaths of Slippy Toad, his wife Amanda, their son, and Beltino. Fox and Krystal were in their kitchen eating breakfast while Marcus was playing with a toy Arwing in their living room.

Krystal called to their son in her very familiar British accented voice. "Marcus! Come and eat your breakfast before it gets cold!"

Marcus joyfully walked into the kitchen and sat down next to his father. He put his toy next to his plate of toast and began to play with the toast.

Fox chuckled to himself as Marcus began to pretend that the toast was Andross and whenever Marcus took a bite he would make a *pew pew* noise. Fox then decided it was time to watch the morning news which he and Krystal made a habit of doing every morning.

Fox thought to himself. 'Thank god we have a TV in here.' Krystal looked at Fox and whispered to him. 'I heard that, you lazy bum.'

Fox gave Krystal a grin before picking up the TV remote, and clicking the power button. As the television screen came to life, it showed one figure sitting at a desk in a news room. The grey furred raccoon adjusted his tie as he stared at the camera. After shuffling his papers he looked at the camera and spoke in that stereotypical, over the top male news caster voice.

"Good morning Corneria! I'm Buck Jenkins with your morning news." Buck began to shuffle in his seat nervously. "Five days have gone by since the deaths of hundreds in the horrible terrorist attacks on the Research Sector and Spaceport. Police still have been unable find the perpetrator, but it is likely he had accomplices. In other news, yesterday, Lieutenant Falco Lombardi was sent to Titania with some of Corneria's best soldiers to help protect the scientists at the newly built military base and research centre..."

Fox and Krystal glanced at each other quickly before looking back at the screen, suddenly very interested in what the news reporter had to say. The news reporter continued to speak for a little bit. "And as a special treat we just happen to have our field reporter, Olivia Harrow, on Titania. She is currently at the base interviewing Mr. Lombardi..." With that Buck turned his head to the left.

* * *

Time: 9:00 A.M.

Location: Cornerian Military base and Research centre – Titania

A green light came on a camera-woman's camera as she counted down for the female avian news reporter to begin. The camera-woman pointed at the news reporter, she took a deep breath and began to speak.

"Thank you Buck! I'm here right now, standing in the newly completed Cornerian military base and research centre where it looks like soldiers are busy with morning routine tasks and engineers are busy doing morning maintenance."

As she said this, the camera began moving around the area, quickly showing the soldiers performing morning patrols before turning to the engineer's who were all sitting around two Landmaster Class tanks.

The camera came back to focus on Olivia as she began to speak with Falco; "So Mr. Lombardi what do think of this base?"

Falco straightened up, cleared his throat, and said; "I believe it is a great accomplishment for Corneria."

"Can you tell us what exactly the scientists here are researching?" She asked in a very curious voice.

"From what I understand, the scientists are studying new minerals they've found, new ruins, and other stuff I probably shouldn't be talking about in front of a camera without their permission."

"Fair enough. Another quick question, if you don't mind, what kind of fortifications does this base have?"

Falco looked at the news reporter, wondering why she wants to know but dismissed the thought, quickly answering; "This is the most heavily fortified base Corneria has built to date. The walls are made of multiple layers of the strongest starship armor available, making it nearly indestructible, and atop the walls are four sniper towers, one at each corner. Inside the walls are multiple Anti-Air gun emplacements, along with barracks at the Far East side of the base, and a hangar at the back of the base, and there are two..."

Falco's sentence was cut off by a large explosion causing him and the news reporter to flinch. He looked over at what happened and saw that a Landmaster apparently combusted. Sitting about the fiery remains were the engineers, all of them staring at the remains with wide eyes. One of the engineers put his hand to his muzzle as he began snickering to himself, obviously trying to hide it.

Falco, getting very annoyed by the inappropriately timed snickering, shouted over to the engineer. "Hey what the hell is so fucking funny!?"

As he yelled at him, another engineer walked up to him, appearing as if he could burst into laughter at any moment. It looked like he was about to say something, but instead simply turned around and walked towards the barracks, soon being followed by the other engineers who had been sitting around the debris.

Falco turned around back towards the camera and was about to finish talking until he was once again interrupted by the sound of bones cracking. He made an annoyed face and turned towards the North West sniper tower, but didn't see anyone in it. Glancing to the ground beneath it, he saw the crumpled up corpse of a sniper, lying in a large pool of his own blood.

Falco quickly pulled out his radio and spoke into the receiver; "Syd, What is your status?" *static* *static* "Syd? Syd?! You there man?!" Falco stuffed his radio partway into his vest pocket and looked up towards the towers. Surely enough, one by one each sniper fell out and hit the ground with a nice bone shattering impact.

Suddenly everyone stopped what they were doing. The soldiers pulled out their weapons and began nervously aiming them all over the place. Falco pulled out his blaster as quickly as possible, but froze in fear when he heard a low metallic hum, followed by the sickening sound of flesh being torn coming from Olivia's direction. Both he and the camera woman turned their heads to see what had happened.

There, sticking out of her rib cage was a long, metal spear or javelin of some kind. One end stuck out of her rib cage sickeningly, while the other gore covered end was stuck into the ground, causing Olivia to slowly slide down the spear and onto the dirt and sand. Blood flowed freely from both her entry and exit wound, the blood pooled about her body as she lay dead.

Right at that moment static screeched from the intercom speakers causing Falco and the soldiers to cover their ears in pain until the sound stopped. Quite suddenly, a very cheerful voice, with a thick Australian accent came on; "Goooood morning Titania! Time to have a little fun!"

Just as the voice stopped every single piece of radar technology began going crazy. The AA guns began to come out of the walls and go back in over and over again. Satellite dishes began to extend upwards, go back down, up again, repeating the movement, but constantly getting faster. Until finally every single piece of technology just fell apart, exploded or collapsed.

Falco was about to issue an order to everyone, that is, until the camera woman smashed her camera across the side of Falco's head, causing him to spin about and land flat on his back. He looked up at the woman, trying to see through his now blurry vision. Finally the blur cleared and he saw what looked to be a female wolf wearing a black combat vest topping light desert camo, along with camo pants and army boots. The she-wolf looked down at Falco and placed the camera on a ledge.

Suddenly Falco could hear the loud whine of a dropship and sure enough, a massive beaten up dropship came down over the horizon and hovered over the centre of the base. The Cornerian soldiers began to make a perimeter around the area beneath the ship, aiming at the ship in a panic.

The bottom of the ship opened up allowing 20 or so heavily armed and armored soldiers to come rappelling down thick steel cables, each of them wielding some kind of assault rifle, pistol or shotgun, though they all looked deadly. Even before they hit the ground they open fired on the Cornerians, causing most of them to scream and fall down to the ground. Just then a figure jumped out of the side of the dropship and landed perfectly on his feet wielding two flamethrowers. He looked around and grinned as he began to set fire to vehicle, soldier, and scientist alike. The dropship flew away as the group of engineers from before pulled out grenade launchers and began firing them, seemingly at random.

Right at that moment the bases metal gate was blown open allowing a huge group of wolves wielding shields, spears, maces, swords, and almost any other melee weapon you can imagine, to come rushing in, trampling the fleeing Cornerian soldiers before beating them to death.

Falco got up slowly, still holding his blaster. He looked about at the chaos, wondering what the hell was happening, until he felt something hard hit him in the back of the head, causing him to fall unconscious. The she-wolf from before looked down at Falco's unconscious body, then back towards the camera, still on its ledge. She took out her Desert Eagle type pistol, took aim at the camera, and pulled the trigger...

* * *

Time: 8:00 AM

Location: The McCloud Residence – Cornerian Countryside

Fox, Krystal and Marcus were looking at their television in pure shock, not believing what had just occurred.

The picture on the television changed back to Buck's horrified face. "Oh my god..." He said quietly to himself, placing his hand over his mouth. The picture on the TV slowly went to static before shutting itself off. Fox looked to Marcus and said; "Marcus go to your room for a little bit ok?"

Marcus nodded and ran upstairs and into his room. Fox and Krystal were about to get up when the TV turned itself back on. They both quickly sat back down and saw that the screen was static free. Instead, the TV showed a pitch black screen, except for a dark yellow eye with a small black "X" shape where it's pupil should've been.

The Dark yellow orb began speaking in a distorted, high pitched, but clearly insane voice. "Hello citizens of Corneria. It seems that the studio is experiencing some technical difficulties. But don't worry about them though, because we will. I mean that's our job. To fix the problems _you_ make. Man they need better security on those bases.... anyways we'll see you all very soon", The orb laughed psychotically as Fox stood up, turning off the TV manually. Despite it being off, there was text blinking on the screen, it read; "Until next time… _Fox_..."

* * *

**Author's Comments: So, again i'm very sorry about the massive delay with the uploading of this chapter... but if you still need a visual of what the C.O.S.'s armor looks like, it's a mix between the armor from Section 8 and ODST armor. **


	4. Chapter 3

**Authors Notes: Hey everyone, I'm sorry i'm so late with this. I had alot of issues with school, friends, my mind, and certain people on this site.....but anyways, On with the story!**

**Also, as we all already know Star Fox isn't mine only the massive amount of OC's are........**

**Song of the Day: Mind by System of a Down**

* * *

**Star Fox: The Company of Strays**

**Chapter 3**

"_**Torture, Definition – The act of inflicting excruciating pain, as punishment or revenge, as a means of getting a confession or information, or for sheer cruelty." – Falanks's Musing's**_

* * *

Time: 11:00 AM, 2 days since the attack

Location: McCloud Residence – Cornerian Countryside

Two days had passed since the attack at the Cornerian base on Titania. It was really late in the morning; the sun was shining down on Corneria's surface with a burning gaze. But it was very quiet at the McCloud's residence, no one had heard anything from Falco, Katt had been staying at Fox's place since the attack, and Corneria had not taken any further action against Titania.

Everyone was still asleep except for a certain little blue vulpine, whom was up early watching Saturday morning cartoons. Of course being the young age that he is, Marcus did not understand why he had to keep the television volume low while everyone else was asleep.

After several minutes of watching cartoons and laughter that could brighten up any ones day, the phone began to ring.

It rang for several minutes before stopping, but after a long pause it began to ring again. Seeing as how Fox or Krystal weren't answering it, Marcus decided he should.

Marcus leapt off the couch, running as quickly as his little feet would carry him to the phone. Although, when he got to it, he realized that he couldn't reach, so he quickly grabbed a nearby chair, and climbed up to the phone.

Upon answering it, Marcus was surprised to hear a voice he hadn't heard in a long time, it was Peppy.

"Hello?" Peppy asked in an urgent and rushed sounding voice.

"McCloud residence, Marcus speaking." The blue kit said in a high pitched, somewhat nervous sounding voice.

There was a slight pause which was halted by Peppy's old and weary voice. "Ah, hello Marcus, how are you? Is your father there?"

Becoming a bit more confident, Marcus answered him. "Hi, I'm good, and yeah daddy is here."

"May I speak with him please? It's very urgent" Peppy asked, with his voice becoming a bit more rushed again.

"Okay!" Marcus shouted cheerfully as he jumped down from the chair and ran upstairs to find his father.

Marcus ran up to his parent's bedroom door and knocked really loudly which was replied with a loud *THUD* noise and someone, probably Fox, shouting "FUCKING SHIT! THAT HURT."

The door opened a small bit, Fox poked his head out and looked down at Marcus and asked him what was wrong.

Marcus replied by giving him the phone and then ran back down stairs to continue watching his show.

Fox closed the door behind him, sat back onto his bed, put the phone up to his ear, and asked in a very annoyed, yet sleepy voice. "Yes?"

"_Fox is that you?_" Peppy asked in a rushed tone of voice.

"Yeah, it's me. Is there a reason why you're calling me at this time?"

"_I'm sorry; I didn't know you were asleep. But enough about that, I need to see you, Krystal, and Katt immediately._"

Fox sighed deeply, "Can it wait?"

"_No it can't wait! Get over here ASAP!_" Peppy shouted, getting somewhat frustrated with the vulpine.

"Ok, ok calm down. We'll be right over."

Fox hung up, put the phone down, and turned over to Krystal who was laying on her side, staring at him.

"What did Peppy want?" she asked, though already knowing the answer.

"Peppy says he wants you, me, and Katt over in his office ASAP." Fox said while getting up from the bed to get dressed.

"Did he say why?"

"No, he didn't but it sounded urgent." The vulpine said finishing up getting dressed.

* * *

_**About 5 hours later…**_

Fox, Krystal, Katt, and Marcus were finally dressed and ready to go, but before they left Krystal and Katt noticed that Fox was checking the TV screen for something, but when he couldn't find anything he shrugged and they finally left for the Cornerian military base.

As they were driving through traffic, they kept getting red lights which eventually got really annoying for Fox. But at one red light, Marcus looked out his window and spotted a very odd looking wolf sitting on a bench.

The wolf's fur was white as fresh snow and looked a bit shaggy. Marcus also noticed the odd rag over it's eyes. Marcus guessed he was blind but if that were true, then why did it feel like the wolf staring at him?

The wolf seemed to nod to Marcus and as a truck passed in between them the wolf vanished.

The light finally turned green and Fox resumed driving.

* * *

Location: Cornerian Military Base

Time: 4:00 PM

Fox, Krystal, Marcus, and Katt walked into the main building to be greeted by two Cornerian soldiers. The soldiers didn't exactly greet them with respect, instead they told Fox and company to come with them.

The two soldiers led them through a number of hallways until they came into a large circular room. The lights were dimmed, there were people working at computer terminals everywhere, in the middle was a hologram projector, and sitting around it were soldiers from Corneria, Katina, Zoness, and the other planets of the alliance.

The two soldiers quickly filed out of the room once the group was inside. Peppy walked up to Fox and told him to find somewhere to sit but to tell Marcus to wait outside first. As soon as Marcus left the room Fox, Krystal and Katt found a spot to sit, which of course ended up being next to Peppy.

"Why exactly did you call us here?" Fox asked in a curious tone.

Just as Peppy was about to answer him the speakers in the room came to life and became filled with static. The static cleared, and was replaced by a high pitched ringing noise, nearly high enough to shatter glass. The noise stopped suddenly when the hologram projector blinked to life with no warning. Needless to say, everyone was surprised at what the machine was showing.

The image was black as a raven's wing aside from a small, dark yellow orb that seemed to be floating. Fox looked closer and quickly noticed that it was the exact same orb that had appeared on his TV. Krystal gasped as she realized this, but the worst part was the fact that the orb seemed to search the room, only stopping once it came upon the couple.

Suddenly the image flickered, and the blackness surrounding the orb seemed to brighten slowly. When the shadows had completely left the image, it revealed a cloaked figure sitting in a dimly lit room. The figure's cloak was an odd shade of red, appearing to bed nearly black. Its hood drooped down over the most part of the creature's face and muzzle. The only thing that could be seen inside the confines of the hood was the orb.

The figure began to glance around the room as if it were searching for something. That is until one of the Katinan soldiers spoke up, asking the soldier next to him something.

"Hey, man. Isn't that the guy who killed your brother?"

Before the other soldier could reply, the cloaked figure turned its baleful gaze upon them. After a few moments, a sadistic smile could be seen on the figure's muzzle and began to speak to the soldier in a high-pitched, but raspy voice. Like the voice of an evil Mickey Mouse.

"Ah! So you're Jim's little brother? What did he say your name was again?" the figure asked itself, tilting its head up in thought. "Oh that's right....Jake. How are you? Your brother sends his finest regards from hell." The figure snickered to itself in the confines of the cloak.

Jake, was enraged by this murderer's taunting and as such, stood up, grabbed his blaster, and stormed towards the flickering image. But when he got there, he realized that he couldn't hurt a hologram, it was just a bunch of bits and bytes. So, he did his best to calm himself, and turned to go back to his seat.

"That was a very smart decision on your part, Jake. Because, if you had come any closer we would've had to kill you."

Jake turned around and walked towards the projector again, where he tilted his head to the side and raised an eyebrow in confusion. "Oh yeah? And how exactly would you do that if you're talking to us through a hologram?"

"Like this..." The figure grinned under his hood, leaned toward the pixels that separated him from Jake, and the impossible happened. The pixels of the hologram seemed to bend around the figure's arm, where it grabbed a hold of the soldier's throat and ripped a fair chunk of it from his body before retreating back inside the image. Jake's body, suddenly began to spasm as his hands went to his neck, trying to stop the fountain of blood spraying out of his throat and onto nearby soldiers. Finally, his body went limp as he fell to his knees, then to the floor, where he lay in a quickly growing pool of his own cooling blood.

It took a few moments for everyone to realize what in hell's name had just occurred, but when the shock passed, everyone began to back away from the hologram as quickly as they could. Everyone looked to the figure in the image, who was simply sitting there, smiling at them while the lump of gore that was Jake's throat sat in his hand. Without another word, he simply placed the piece of meat in his mouth and ate it without any qualms.

"Well I'm stuffed!" The figure said in a much different tone of voice, now sounding overjoyed, excited and cheerful, much like a child. And instead of the rasping, murderous voice, the voice bore an extremely thick accented Australian voice.

As the cloaked figure began to lick his chops, the hologram flickered again as the lighting got a bit brighter, which caused the figure to look around in a slight panic. As the figure looked around frantically, trying to figure out what was happening, the sound of grinding metal began to fill the room. After the grinding stopped a blue blur was thrown at the figure, causing him to fall to the ground. The cloaked figure quickly picked himself up and moved out of the image.

Fox leaned over towards Peppy; "What the hell was that about?" He asked the nervous general.

Before the Peppy could respond two figures appeared on the hologram. No one could tell who or even what they were, this is because they both wore armour comparable to that of a tank. The tarnished metal they adorned themselves with looked like it would blend in very well with the sands of Titania, despite how obvious the bulky plating looked. The armour's visor glowed an eerie blue against the dark, metallic scenery that surrounded them. They didn't seem to be armed in any way, shape or form, though their fists most likely sufficed in close combat. One of the armoured creatures picked up the badly beaten creature they had thrown in, while the other brought over a flimsy looking chair. They both sat the bloodied creature into the chair and secured its wrists and legs to the seat. In front of the chair was a small, square table made of some kind of metal. The table was marred by bloodstains and rust, though it was near impossible to distinguish which was which. On the opposite side of the table, a figure was sitting in another chair, but its form was enshrouded by darkness. Only his blood red eyes were visible through the shadows.

The two armoured figures turned towards the darkness and left. But within seconds, a very familiar looking Arsenic coloured wolf emerged from the darkness and walked over to the injured creature. When he reached the bruised figure, he looked down at the wounds that covered the figure's body, he then walked around to the left side of the chair, while grabbing at the back of the creatures head, and proceeded to slam the unconscious figure's face down into the corner of the table, which resulted in a loud bang. The table now had a sizable dent in it, as did the creature's head. As the beaten figure began to stir, the Arsenic wolf gave him a flick on the side of the head causing the figure to open its eyes with a sudden fear.

Katt and Fox gasped as they could tell right away... It was Falco.

"Well, well, well. Welcome back to the land of the living, _Bird_" The shadowed figure growled in a tone so devoid of emotion it was chilling.* (Author's Notes: Think Rorschach's voice from Watchmen.)

Falco didn't respond, he was too busy shaking in fear, but at the same time he was somewhat hypnotized by the shadowed figure's red eyes.

Just then, another armoured figure came in from the darkness and handed the shadowed figure a small object. The armoured figure saluted by pounding the left side of his chest with its right hand. The red eyes just nodded to the armoured creature as it made its way out. When the red eyes looked back at Falco, the shadowed figure leaned forward a tiny bit. The figure made a fist around the small object he was given, he then began to shake his fist a bit, until he finally moved his fist over the darkened part of the table and opened his hand up causing a small noise which sounded like a small stone rolling on metal. Out from the darkened part of the table a die rolled its way over to Falco. It stopped rolling right when it reached the edge of the table, the number showing was six.

"Well, I guess this is my lucky day... I get six guesses" The figure said, his voice sounding a bit cocky... well as cocky as it can sound.

"Hmmm... let's see, your name is Falco Lombardi, your age is... I'm guessing mid-thirties. Your rank in the Cornerian military is Lieutenant..." The figure's eyes began to look upwards as the sound of someone sniffing the air appeared in the speakers. "...From the smell of it, you have not showered in some time..." Just as he said that, the Arsenic wolf, walked up to Falco, holding a medium sized metal bucket that looked to be filled with a fair bit of water, along with a number of ice cubes. When he was arms length away from the avian, he took hold of the top and bottom of the bucket and with a swinging motion threw the ice water right at the avian... Essentially giving him a bath.

Falco was now freezing his ass off, he was shaking and couldn't stop, his eyes were wide open now, and his wounds screamed out as the cold water moved dirt that had already settled there.

Everyone in the briefing room cringed at the sight of the freezing water being thrown onto Falco, and at this point Katt began shaking in complete anger.

The darkened figure's eyes glared at Falco with utter hatred as he began speaking again in his usual deep, monotone, and scratchy voice; "And last but not least—"

The figure was interrupted as Katt stood up from her seat and began screaming through the hologram at whoever this person was. "JUST STOP IT! JUST FUCKING STOP IT! JUST LEAVE HIM THE FUCK ALONE!"

The figure's eyes surveyed the hologram, and saw the pink feline standing up from her seat. shrieking obscenities at him. A small grin appeared on the figure's muzzle as he let out a deep, menacing chuckle.

"Well _Birdie_, it looks to me like you're in love... hmph, _Love_, such a useless emotion. An emotion that can be the death of any warrior..." The figure said, hatred filling his voice.

The figure looked back over to Falco and began to crack different joints in his body. "Well, I guess we should get down to the main questions that need answering..."

The figure leaned forward a bit and looked Falco dead in the eyes. "My first question is; How many outposts are setup on Titania?"

Falco didn't respond, he just kept a blank expression on his face as he stared into the darkened figures blood red eyes.

The figure let out an annoyed sigh and asked the question again… Falco quickly answered, fear showing in his voice. "There are about 15 outposts."

The figure grinned. "See? Now was that so hard… My next question, How well equipped are they?"

Falco was a bit faster to answer this time, though his voice was steadily getting shakier and more fearful. "E-e-each outpost is equipped with a few Landmaster tanks, at least six AA-Guns, four sniper towers, the latest in radar tech, and a good hundred troops or so…"

As Falco was saying this, the large Arsenic wolf behind him was making mental notes of what he was saying, while on the other end of the hologram, Peppy's face was buried in his palms.

The figure's eyes widened at everything Falco was listing. "Wow all that stuff for a small outpost…" The figure let out another sigh. "What are the Cornerians researching? What are they mining?"

This time Falco looked over at the holographic screen and tried to ignore the figure. He let out an angered sigh. "If you answer this simple question you will not be harmed."

Again Falco tried to ignore the figure and his threats. Now the figure began to get angry, his breathing began to get louder and more stressed. "So be it…"

The loud metal scraping noise filled the speakers again causing everyone sitting on the other end of the hologram to jump. Once everyone was done freaking out, Katt, Krystal, Fox, and Peppy looked at the hologram in fear.

There, standing next to Falco, was a wolf of some kind. It's fur was a Slate Grey, and it looked to stand nearly 6'1 despite it's slouched posture. It appeared to be wearing a pair of extremely tattered combat camos, and what looked to be a hoodie of some kind. It's left arm was completely cybernetic, ending in long, menacing claws which appeared to have fresh bloodstains on it. And on it's head, it wore rough cloth wrappings, which covered the majority of it's face.

The darkened figure glared at Falco and asked again trying to calm his breathing down; "Answer my fucking question... What are the Cornerians researching? What are they mining?"

Falco took a deep breath and answered; "...We are trying to research Titania's history, as for the mining... I don't know."

"If you want the history of our home, why don't you go ask Peppy? I'm sure he would love to tell you about it..." the figure exclaimed in a sarcastic manner.

Fox immediately turned to face Peppy; "What exactly is he talking about Peppy?"

Peppy just lowered his head with guilt.

"Hmmm... not gonna tell us? Very well, I guess you can explain that to McCloud and his whore later..." the figure said in a threatening tone.

"Now back to my question... Tell me what the Cornerians are mining..."

Falco took a quick glance at Peppy, then looked back at the blood red eyes that were glaring at him from the darkness; "All Peppy told me was that we are mining a mineral that is only found on Titania... I swear, that's all I know!"

The figure squinted at Falco until finally he spoke again; "Well, you're right about the 'minerals' only being located here... but you know more..." the figures eyes looked up to the wolf standing next to Falco; "Luckily we have methods of extracting information...heheheh."

"Falco, I would like to introduce you to a very close friend of mine... Ripper."

Suddenly, the wolf known only as Ripper, lifted up his cybernetic arm, took his index claw, placed the tip of it onto Falco's shoulder, and proceeded to make a clean yet gory gash down the avian's bicep. Falco began to shake and sweat from the dirty air that began its job infecting the wound.

The darkened figure leaned forward a bit more and growled at Falco; "Tell me what you are using the minerals for!"

Falco responded with increased shaking. In the briefing room Katt had her hands cupped over her eyes as she was crying to herself.

The figure began to grow impatient as he grabbed the edges of the table, stood up from his chair, and roared at Falco; "WHAT ARE THE CORNERIANS USING THE MINERALS FOR!?"

He looked over towards Ripper again and nodded. Ripper acknowledged the nod with a nod of his own along, with an odd click sound coming from his eye. Ripper then proceeded to, again, lift up his cybernetic arm, but this time he extended all of his claws. He looked at his sharp claws for a little bit, then he turned his attention to the deep gash in Falco's arm and rammed his claws all the way into the wound until he dug his claws right down to Falco's bone, causing a painful gasp to escape Falco's beak.

"So... are you gonna tell me what I want to know?" the figure asked, again trying to calm his breathing.

Tears began to stream down the sides of Falco's face as he began gasping for air. He looked at the figures eyes, then at Katt, then back to the figure; "Fuck you!"

The figure shut his eyes... when he opened them he nodded to Ripper again as he sat back down. Ripper looked into Falco's eyes with a maniacal laugh as his cybernetic claws slid out of the gash and raised his arm. With very little effort at all, Ripper swiped Falco's entire limb off of his body causing Falco to release a bloodcurdling scream as a veritable fountain of blood, gore, and viscera were sent soaring about the room. This of course also caused the majority of people in the briefing room to vomit. A few seconds passed until Falco finally stopped screaming and fell unconscious, whether it from the shock or the blood loss, no-one knew.

"Hmph... take him to his cell and get someone to patch up his new wound." The figure said, as two armoured creatures re-entered the room, unchained Falco, and carried him away.

The hologram flickered again as the lighting in the now bloody room got bright enough for people to actually see the mysterious figure. He stood up and looked right at Peppy. "Well, I guess this is good bye for now... but before I leave you to explain all of this to the public... I thought I would just at least give you my name... that way you'll know who you are dealing with..."

Fox, Krystal, Peppy, and Katt leaned closer to the hologram of this ebon furred wolf and listened. "My name is Spyke..."

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**Author's comments: Ok, so...hopefully this answered some questions and if not, it probably made you guys just ask more.... Also, If you want more info on Ripper, Don't ask me, I didn't create him. My friend created him but I do have his profile on my page....So, you guys should know by now my updates aren't planned, so it could take a while, R&R plz.....See Ya!**


	5. Chapter 4

_Once again, Star Fox is not mine, but the OC's are. Also, if you're a Star Wolf fan...please don't hate me. I like them too, but my OC's don't. _

_I'm also really sorry this took so long, but I've been through alot of things that halted my progress...I'd rather not go into detail... _

_**Song of the Day: Nothing Else Matters by Metallica and Beautiful Mourning by Machine Head...(I'll let you guys guess when to play the songs...although when reading it's kind of obvious)**_

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Star Fox: The Company of Strays

Chapter 4

"_Memories are a way of holding onto the things you love, the things you are… The things you never want to lose" _– Spyke's Musing's

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Time: 12:00 AM

Location: Hidden Oasis – Titania

Hidden in the desert of Titania was a place of refuge to escape the harsh sands of the planet. It was quiet and calm, a place of peaceful reflection for those that came to it. A small oasis that only a handful could ever hope to find in their lifetime. There was a cool pool of water that lay in the center of a serene oasis. The light of the planet's luminescent moon reflected off the clear water, giving it an evanescent glow.

There, at the waters' edge, stood a lonely lupine figure. His Blood Red eyes stared at his own reflection in the pool. His eyes began to look himself over in disgust, his entire attire was black, from the spiked boots on his hands, to studded gloves he wore on his hands. An open, black vest showed his black fur beneath, and a thin chain with a silver ring hung around his neck.

His eyes stopped on the ring, and he stared for a brief moment. At least until a silvery furred hand blocked his vision and began to wave up and down. The silence was broken by an almost melodic, feminine voice.

"Spyyyyyyke... Oh Spyyyyyyke... Spyke!" the female said, causing Spyke to begin blinking rapidly before he finally snapped out of his trance.

He let out a deep sigh before turning his head slightly to the right. "Did you want something Silver?" Spyke asked in his usual raspy voice, although if one listened closely enough, they could make out a touch of sadness in it.

Silver walked up to the right of him and handed Spyke small a data pad. "Oh, I just came by to drop off the report of today's raid and to see if you would like to-"

Spyke looked at the data pad confused. "What is this?" he asked her, pointing to a holographic picture of what looked to be some sort of massive satellite.

Silver looked at the picture and shrugged. "Oh, that? Some sort of new tech that the Cornerians developed. Kane's trying to figure out what it's for."

Spyke lifted his hand up and rubbed his muzzle in thought, "Hmmm, what the hell are they planning?" he asked himself out loud as he placed the data pad on a nearby rock where his weapons lay.

As Spyke returned to his spot at the edge of the pool of water, Silver turned to face him which in-turn caused Spyke to turn and face her. Silver smirked at Spyke, "Don't worry about it. Relax and we can-"

"_I don't believe now is the best time for that Silver. I must speak with Spyke._" A ghastly rasp spoke out in Silver's mind, sounding strong, yet feeble, ancient, yet young, a contradiction of the highest calibur. To say the least, it was a little disconcerting.

Silver turned around to see a lupine with ghostly white fur. His entire left arm, and everything below his waist was robotic. Crawling up his right arm, across his chest, neck and face, he had black tribal tattoos. Covering his eyes was a disgusting rag that had apparently once been white.

Silver frowned at the lupine and rolled her eyes. "Spoil Sport." She muttered, then turned back to Spyke. "It looks like the fun will just have to postponed..." she said, her voice taking on a subtly seductive tone.

Spyke arched an eyebrow in confusion at her statement, but before he could say anything she turned to leave. Her tail lightly swept against his crotch causing Spyke's expression to show even more confusion.

"We'll _talk_ later, Spyke." She said in a slightly flirtatious tone as she left.

The white furred lupine approached Spyke as he turned back towards the pool of crystal clear water. Suddenly Spyke felt a slight tingle in the back of his mind as that same indescribably disturbing voice spoke to him. "_You summoned me?_" the lupine asked telepathically.

Spyke closed his eyes and knelt down and began brushing his finger tips through the surface of the water as he spoke, "Yes, I did Falanks."

"_Why?_" Falanks asked.

"I need to ask you for something, your opinion" Spyke spoke hesitantly.

"_Ask away_" Falanks stated calmly.

Spyke took in a deep breath through his nostrils and exhaled through his mouth as he opened his eyes to see his reflection and Falanks' in the water, "Am I doing the right thing? With Corneria I mean."

"_Spyke… You know that I respect your opinions highly, and would happily follow you to the end. But what you ordered Arson to do was simply barbaric. Many of the others share this feeling with me._" His telepathic voice said with a hint of disappointment.

Suddenly a wave of confusion hit Spyke as he looked up to his telepathic friend. "What are you talking about? All I ordered him to do was sabotage Corneria City's airfield and their R&D Department. Are you telling me that he did something else?"

Falanks looked down at Spyke, his brow furrowed in confusion, "_Wait… You don't know?_"

Spyke began getting impatient, as he clenched his teeth, "Know _what_?"

Instead of telling Spyke, Falanks showed him an image of a mushroom cloud looming over Downtown Corneria. As Spyke saw this, his ears drooped and his muzzle dropped down to stare at the water in front of him. "_I'm sorry Spyke, we thought you knew._"

Spyke remained silent; the only sound that could be heard was the sound of Spyke's fingers gently wading through the waters' surface. "_Spyke?_" Falanks asked, causing Spyke to shake his head as he came out of a flashback. "_Is something wrong?_"

Spyke didn't respond like he usually would, instead a small smile spread across his muzzle. Falanks looked at Spyke completely surprised. "Don't worry yourself Falanks. I'm fine" Spyke said, his raspy voice sounding gentle and happy. His fingers stopped wading through the water as a droplet of water fell into the pool. Spyke opened his eyes as tears began to flow freely down his face and into the water.

"_You know that I can see that you're lying Spyke._" Falanks stated. "_Simply speak the truth, it will help._"

"The happiest moment of my life" Spyke said, his voice becoming shaky. "It took place right here, in this very oasis. My mother was sitting right there where you are standing..." Spyke said as he pointed to the ground Falanks was standing on. "She watched and laughed as my father taught me how to swim in this very pool. We splashed each other and even raced from one end of the pool to the other. Afterwards, we sat over by the tree behind me and had a picnic." Spyke finished his narration, his voice now unstable, thousands of tears now flowed from his eyes and landed either into the pool or on the ground. He lifted his right hand out of the pool and began to gently rub the silver ring around his neck.

'_This is sacred ground, for this is the last oasis on this planet. There is to be no bloodshed in this oasis, no fighting. I will do all that I must to protect this place... no matter the cost.'_

Before Falanks could respond to Spyke's little prayer he felt a hostile presence close by. Spyke's torn ear twitched at the sound of a blaster being un-holstered. Spyke turned his head slightly to the left. "What do you want, O'Donnell?" Spyke asked the figure, a hint of malice clinging to his calm voice.

As Spyke stood up to face the new figure emerging from the brush, Falanks walked up beside him, feeling Spyke's smouldering anger beginning to rise into a fire. Instead of just one figure emerging, there were three. The first was a grey lupine with a cybernetic eye, the second, a green chameleon, and the third was a black furred feline. All three of them were wearing what looked to be completely midnight black Spec. Ops. uniforms.

"I'm in no mood to shed any blood right now Star Wolf." Spyke practically growled at Wolf.

Wolf smirked at Spyke, "Well that's just too bad. Cause we are. In fact we were sent here to bring you in alive, but no one ever said anything about un-harmed" he said with a small, evil chuckle.

"No, I will give you two options. Either kill me, or leave this place." Spyke said as a couple of tears fell from his eyes.

Instead of answering Spyke, Wolf quickly raised his blaster and shot Spyke in the gut. Spyke's eyes widened as he looked down to see a gush of blood drip onto the sand of the Sacred Oasis. He put his left hand on his new wound as his eyes began to twitch. Falanks could feel his companion's rage rising and his sanity leaving him.

Wolf smirked at Spyke's reaction but that smirk soon vanished as he saw what Spyke did next. Spyke took his now bloodied hand, moved it up to his nose and sniffed it. After inhaling the scent of his own blood, he slowly lapped at the red liquid until the hand was clean. He put his hand back down to his side, looked and Wolf, and spoke with a wide, sadistic grin. "So that's how you wanna do it?" He chuckled as he began cracking his knuckles. Falanks was entering a fighting stance when he heard a familiar presence return.

"Hey guys! I'm sorry but I accidentally left that data pad here-" Silver said as she burst through the brush but stopped dead in her tracks at this new sight. She turned to Spyke and saw the crazed look in his eyes that screamed he was going to bloodily murder these intruders. She had seen this look in his eyes when he saved her from being raped. Silver walked up to Spyke's right so she was now facing Panther.

"Three against three, Huh?" Wolf asked not really as a question but more as a statement. Wolf then lifted up his left hand and waved Leon in.

As Leon walked forward, Falanks planted his cybernetic feet into the sand as his eyes began to glow an eerie blue. Suddenly, Leon whipped out ten throwing daggers and threw them at Falanks with incredible speed. But instead of meeting their target they simply vanished a few centimetres in front of Falanks. Leon tilted his head to the right in confusion and was left in utter shock as Falanks' hands twitched and the daggers reappeared but were flying towards Leon instead.

Leon quickly dodged 8 of the daggers but two of them pinned his shoulders to a fallen tree trunk. Before Leon could make any kind of sound, the now panting Falanks began to make a pushing motion with his hands causing the log, to which Leon was currently attached, to skid forwards into the pool of water. It began to sink when it hit the water, but as the splash it made subsided, he made another motion with his hands, which caused the water to rise up from its resting place with Leon in tow. Falanks made his hands into a formation as if he were holding a sphere and the water followed his command. It quickly made a spherical prison around Leon causing him to very slowly begin to drown. Falanks began to use his fingers to make the sphere of water spin around the oasis until finally he let the sphere drop back into the pool while Leon fell at the edge of the pool unconscious. The ghostly white lupine was visibly exhausted from the amazing feat he had just finished doing, but he raised his fists confrontationally none the less.

Wolf's eyes went wide at what he just witnessed. His most loyal ally and friend had just been beaten by some _freak_. As Wolf was about to send Panther to attack he heard the sound of a blade stabbing through someone. He turned to his right and saw that Silver had indeed stabbed a katana right through Panther's gut, pinning him to the ground.

Panther looked at Silver as if he had seen the most beautiful angel ever. "If this is how Panther is going to die, then I'm glad it's by your beautiful han-" Before he could finish his oddly timed come-on there was a loud gunshot.

"It's men like you that make me sick." Silver spat, disgusted at Panther, but simultaneously satisfied at what she had just done. Panther simply screamed in pain and horror as he looked down between his legs. A gory mess of what was once his private area was all that was left. Before he could even think of pulling up his blaster to shoot the bitch that had destroyed his manhood, Silver quickly yanked her katana out of his gut and removed him from his head.

"Well Wolf, it looks like it's just you and me." Spyke said to Wolf in a taunting way. Wolf, completely enraged at what had just occurred, rushed at Spyke with his blaster and combat knife out, but before he could do anything, Spyke quickly stepped to his right. In a single swift motion, he tripped Wolf and grabbed the back of his head before throwing him to the ground. Before Wolf could get back up, Spyke grabbed him by the back of his shirt, picked him up and threw him against a nearby tree. Wolf impacted the trunk with a sickening crack. Spyke grinned at this. He slowly walked over to Wolf and flipped him around, and proceeded to grab Wolf by the collar of his shirt, lift him up, and punch him square in the muzzle, sending Wolf flying and land right next to Leon.

"Now. Instead of killing you, I'm going to suggest that you get the water out of his lungs after Falanks here removes you two from here." Wolf was barely able to register what he had said before, in the blink of an eye, Wolf and Leon vanished.

"Come. Let us leave, and prepare for the days to come." Spyke muttered as he and Silver practically had to carry Falanks out of the oasis and to their home.

From the distant foothills, a looming figure watched the fight silently. It made not a noise as its black cloak fluttered in the dry desert wind. A cloud of sand was kicked up by the quickly picking up wind, and in a matter of seconds, the figure was gone without a trace.

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**Authors Comments: Well I hope you enjoyed this chapter as much as I did! And as I will say from now on...my updates are really spaced out...so I wouldn't expect another one for a while. XD**

**Remember R&R!**


	6. Chapter 5

**Author's Notes: From here on out I won't be putting the copyrights stuff because I put it in on the first chapter, I shouldn't have to put it on every chapter.**

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Star Fox: The Company of Strays

Chapter 5

_Unrest, Definition - A sociological phenomenon, for instance: Industrial unrest, Labour unrest, Rebellion, Riot._

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The early morning breeze whipped across the yard as Marcus sat on the porch, brushing his cheek with its cool, dewy fingers. He hadn't been able to sleep all that night, and he sleepily sat on the cushioned swinging chair, playing with his toy fighter, and watching the sun rise oh so slowly. Over the fence, the city seemed so distant, the sun crawling its way over the horizon, just between each of the infinitely tall buildings, and it enthralled the child, and set his sleepy mind to dreams of flying an Arwing above the tops of those buildings which surpassed even the clouds themselves. In his half asleep state, the child failed to notice the figure silently gliding across the grass, a raven cloak fluttering ever so slightly as the breeze continued. Within a couple moments, the figure had found its way to the child's side, looming over him grandly, its height would be imposing even to a fully grown adult. "Good morning, Marcus." It said quietly, its voice almost like a whisper in the wind.

At the same time, that wind touched upon the cheek of another, though one far less innocent and kind. One who's cyclopean stare was firmly fixed out the window, on the ground far below, on the mob of hundreds who banged angrily on the gates of the Cornerian military complex. From the watch towers on either side, the armoured soldiers looked down on them as well, warily training their rifles on the crowd. Each held a sign or something of the like, which read 'Stop the murder! Leave Titania to Titanians!', and the like. The 'Good Lieutenant' stared down at them with gritted teeth, a dour look on his face, and his fists tightened at his sides. How he hated those people, Oh how his anger towards them seethed in his gut, almost making him ill. However, despite his lack of depth perception, Lieutenant Kreesh kept the eagle eye that had earned him his rank, and the authority that came with it.

In the writhing mass of citizens far below him, he saw something. The glint of steel.

One of them had a pistol. Or at least, that would provide a convenient excuse.

Laughing softly, a cruel grin quickly spread across the cruel visage of Kreesh's face, his previous look of disgust and hatred dissipating instantaneously. Bringing his hand to his ear, the Jackal pressed into his comm-piece, and spoke in his rasping, growling manner, the kind of voice that could only come from a history of drinking and heavy smoking. "Sergeant. They're armed." Down on the tower, one of the soldiers looked up to the window, obviously the sergeant Kreesh had just addressed. "Orders sir?", came the inevitable reply after a few moments of staring. "Open fire. Any and all casualties are acceptable." As the sergeant began to relay the orders to those under his jurisdiction, which seemed to be all those posted on and around the towers, the soldiers quickly turned their rifles upon the crowd. "Open fire." Kreesh muttered into the earpiece, sounding almost cheerful. All that was heard that morning, were the sounds of gunshots, and the deafening screams of innocents.

At the Cornerian star-port, however, things continued on schedule, riot or no. As the cargo ships were loaded up, one of the engineers approached one of the soldiers watching over the operation. "Pardon me, sir. But I'd like to bring something up." Turning to face him, the soldier raised an eyebrow and nodded. "Uhm... Sure. But nothing too long. The ships are taking off in a couple minutes..." With a simple nod, the engineer brought up his data pad, and motioned to the weight of cargo ship 'CNF-932'. "Well sir... The thing is the weight. It's about five hundred pounds off from what we were told to expect from General Peppy." Glaring at the pad for a moment, the soldier laughed and patted the engineer's shoulder. "Trust me, kid. It's not a problem. Knowing the Lieutenant, he got some 'heavier artillery' for the boys back on Titania. Just ignore it." Taking this as a decent enough answer, the engineer ran off, and began the start up sequence for the ships. Only a couple minutes later, they were en route to Titania.

As the sun finally began to get higher in the sky, and the clocks began to indicate that noon wasn't far off, Peppy sat in his office, having just had a stern talking to Kreesh about his opening firing on civilians. A moment later however, as the old Hare was catching his breath, Fox and Krystal barged in, a crumpled piece of paper clutched in Fox's hand. Placing it on the desk, he spread it out, and pointed to it. It was a picture of Marcus, smiling with his toy fighter in hand, the word 'Titania' messily scrawled across it. "We're going to get our son back." Krystal growled.

* * *

**Author's Notes: Hey everyone! I know I haven't updated in I think almost a year and a half now, but I blame this chapter...it didn't have any of my OC's so plus it's more of a filler so I'm just glad it's done and I can now get on with the story. Once again, the next chapter will be posted when it's done. **

**Also, I know I didn't put the location or time in...I just want to see if anyone likes it better this way. don't forget to leave a review after reading. XD**


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